Download Rufus for Windows and create bootable USB drives quickly and easily. Explore the latest Rufus versions, portable releases, 32-bit versions, ARM64 versions, and older releases.
Publicly listed release: Rufus 4.15 (Released June 30, 2026). Choose the appropriate executable for your Windows installation, architecture, or portable environment.
Standard 64-bit Executable
rufus-4.15.exe
Standalone Zero-Install Edition
rufus-4.15p.exe
32-bit Windows Architecture
rufus-4.15_x86.exe
Native ARM64 Windows Architecture
rufus-4.15_arm64.exe
Search and filter across all releases, versions, architectures, and variants. All downloads are sourced from official GitHub releases and download directly from https://rufus.ie/downloads/.
| Version | Release Type | Architecture | File | Size | Release Date | Download |
|---|
Browse organized version cards with release dates, architecture support, portable availability, and changelog summaries.
Rufus is a compact, standalone Windows utility engineered primarily to prepare USB flash storage media and generate bootable USB devices. Distributed under the GNU General Public License (GPLv3), the application functions without requiring a formal installation wizard, permitting users to execute it directly from any local disk, external drive, or secondary partition.
The utility is renowned across IT departments, system administrators, and individual power users for its rapid formatting speeds and thorough partition configuration controls. It handles low-level storage tasks such as structuring Master Boot Record (MBR) or GUID Partition Table (GPT) layouts, initializing file systems (NTFS, FAT32, exFAT, UDF, and ReFS), and implanting boot sectors suited for either legacy BIOS/CSM or modern UEFI firmware standards.
Convert ISO images into bootable installation sticks for laptops, desktop computers, and server hardware.
Deploy clean installations of Windows with customizable setup bypasses for TPM, Secure Boot, and mandatory cloud logins.
Write standard Linux distributions like Ubuntu, Fedora, Debian, Mint, and Arch using ISO or DD image write modes.
Generate bootable rescue environments, offline antivirus scanners, BIOS/UEFI firmware flashing drives, or FreeDOS utilities.
A specialized Windows desktop utility designed for precision USB formatting and reliable boot media generation.
Rufus formats and prepares USB flash drives, memory cards, and external storage drives into bootable media compatible with UEFI and legacy BIOS systems.
Accepts bootable ISO images, raw disk images (IMG, VHD, VHDX), compressed archives (zst, gz), and provides both ISO extraction and raw DD sector writing modes.
Available as a portable executable (`rufus-4.15p.exe`) that saves its settings locally alongside the executable file without touching the Windows registry.
Provides tailored executables for modern 64-bit Windows (x64), 32-bit legacy machines (x86), and native ARM64 Windows PCs powered by Snapdragon processors.
Weighing under 2 megabytes, Rufus launches instantly without background services, consuming negligible system memory while performing direct hardware writes.
Access historical releases dating back to Rufus 3.x for older operating system compatibility, legacy BIOS flashing, and specialized vintage hardware support.
Follow this standard step-by-step walkthrough to format and create your bootable media properly.
Obtain the standard or portable executable matching your Windows architecture from the download directory.
Plug your target USB flash drive (at least 8 GB recommended for modern Windows OS) into an available port.
Launch the downloaded executable. When prompted by Windows User Account Control (UAC), grant administrative access.
In the "Device" drop-down menu, verify and pick the exact USB drive you intend to format and boot from.
Click the "SELECT" button and browse your storage to locate the desired operating system ISO or image file.
Choose GPT (for UEFI motherboards) or MBR (for older BIOS machines), and set the file system (NTFS or FAT32).
Click "START". If creating a Windows 11 drive, configure any desired bypass checkboxes in the pop-up dialog.
Allow the progress bar to reach 100% and show "READY" before safely removing your USB flash drive.
Technical considerations, architecture choices, and edition specifics to ensure seamless boot drive preparation.
When preparing to download Rufus, users can select between standard installer binaries, portable editions, and dedicated processor builds. Because the utility does not depend on heavy third-party framework runtimes like the .NET Framework, it runs seamlessly across stock Windows environments directly upon download.
The latest publicly listed release, Rufus 4.15, brings critical improvements to UEFI:NTFS driver selection, adds support for RISC-V 64 architectures, reinforces silent unattended Windows installation protections, and introduces updated security mitigations against XML entity expansion. Upgrading to the latest version guarantees compatibility with modern Windows 11 ISO builds and current Linux kernel bootloaders.
Rufus Portable is designated with a lowercase "p" in its filename (for example, rufus-4.15p.exe). The portable edition stores its preferences, update checking flags, and downloaded language modules in an adjacent settings file (rufus.ini) rather than writing entries to the Windows registry. This is ideal for system administrators running diagnostic toolkits across various client machines.
Rufus is built natively for Microsoft Windows. While version 4.x officially targets Windows 8, Windows 10, and Windows 11, users running legacy Windows 7 installations can download Rufus version 3.22, which retains full functional capability for older operating system installations.
For older machines operating 32-bit Windows kernels or low-power legacy industrial hardware, Rufus maintains dedicated 32-bit x86 executables (such as rufus-4.15_x86.exe). This build executes natively on 32-bit Windows installations without 64-bit emulation barriers.
With the expansion of Windows on ARM devices, including Snapdragon X Elite laptops and modern Surface hardware, Rufus provides a native ARM64 release (rufus-4.15_arm64.exe). Running native ARM64 code ensures optimal write throughput and bypasses the CPU overhead of emulation layers.
Occasionally, specific hardware firmware or older recovery ISOs require legacy bootloader conventions. Older Rufus versions (including releases from the 4.x and 3.x generation) remain accessible in our searchable download directory, preserving the original dates, byte sizes, and direct GitHub source locations.
As a bootable USB creator, Rufus stands apart by packaging essential tools like UEFI:NTFS to permit booting Windows media formatted in NTFS over UEFI without triggering Secure Boot violations. It additionally provides Windows User Experience customization toggles that allow users to disable mandatory TPM checks, bypass online account mandates, and automate local user provisioning.
Answers to common questions regarding Rufus downloads, architectures, portable usage, and project details.
rufus-4.15p.exe) that does not write registry entries and stores configuration data in an adjacent rufus.ini file.